I too am going to hopefully teach science one day. I think it's important, like you pointed out, to move through some of the more complex ideas as a class. Too often, teachers think that if they just assign book work it will give them time to plan and get caught up on grades, but often students (at least my SPED students) get lost in the big vocabulary that comes along with a science book and they simply give up. I was assigned to work in a Marine Biology course last semester. The teacher did an awesome job planning different activities for the students to do. Rarely did they just do book work. The students were engaged a majority of the time because the instructor helped them understand the literature they were working through. I believe science and literature definitely go hand-in-hand. In order to understand the research and theories behind the science, one must be able to read.
A huge idea that you said, to use the text book as a reference tool. It gave me such a pile of mixed emotions. It made me feel happy, stupid, and mad. It's such a great and easy idea that when I read it all I could think of was, DUH!!!!!!! I mean, it seems like such a simple and great idea. And it seems like such a good way to explain to the students how to use the text book. I was mad because I feel cheated that I wasn't given that option as a student. I feel like classes would have been so much more beneficial had I been able to use current news, magazine articles, and other outside resources of information within my classes. I only have one question. You said you will have students bring in and choose some of their own reading material for classes. However, we also read earlier that many students are not exposed to reading at home nor do they have the resources at home to read things other than textbooks. How can you motivate them to search for other resources of information? And how can you help them make use of them?
John,
ReplyDeleteI too am going to hopefully teach science one day. I think it's important, like you pointed out, to move through some of the more complex ideas as a class. Too often, teachers think that if they just assign book work it will give them time to plan and get caught up on grades, but often students (at least my SPED students) get lost in the big vocabulary that comes along with a science book and they simply give up. I was assigned to work in a Marine Biology course last semester. The teacher did an awesome job planning different activities for the students to do. Rarely did they just do book work. The students were engaged a majority of the time because the instructor helped them understand the literature they were working through. I believe science and literature definitely go hand-in-hand. In order to understand the research and theories behind the science, one must be able to read.
A huge idea that you said, to use the text book as a reference tool. It gave me such a pile of mixed emotions. It made me feel happy, stupid, and mad. It's such a great and easy idea that when I read it all I could think of was, DUH!!!!!!! I mean, it seems like such a simple and great idea. And it seems like such a good way to explain to the students how to use the text book. I was mad because I feel cheated that I wasn't given that option as a student. I feel like classes would have been so much more beneficial had I been able to use current news, magazine articles, and other outside resources of information within my classes.
ReplyDeleteI only have one question. You said you will have students bring in and choose some of their own reading material for classes. However, we also read earlier that many students are not exposed to reading at home nor do they have the resources at home to read things other than textbooks. How can you motivate them to search for other resources of information? And how can you help them make use of them?